Somehow it's Finals Week?!

So I know I say this a lot, but WOW time is flying! It's already finals week! How did that happen?!?!

They say time flies when you're having fun, but it also definitely flies when you are busy, busy, busy! Which is what I have been lately. After the Big Island and the Big Engagement, things kicked into high gear here at HPU for just about everyone.

• I turned in my portfolio! Once it gets approved I can share it here with you all, but in the meantime suffice it to say that it is a HUGE relief to say I am finished. It was a great opportunity to reflect on the things I've learned and done in the past two years and how far I have come. I've grown a lot since coming here!
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  Me, working on my portfolio all semester.

• We did mini-lessons in Second Language Writing. Mini-lessons are always fun, because our classmates get to practice being teachers and we get to pretend to be students. For some reason, we all get a kick out of pretending we don't know how to properly conjugate and punctuate. That said, we had to record a video of the teaching and then reflect on it, and there is pretty much NOTHING more awkward than watching yourself on video, am I right?
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  Everyone ever upon seeing themselves on video.

• The Spring 2015 Capstone Symposium had a FANTASTIC crew from the TESOL program (both undergrad and grad) and we even won some very fancy prizes! A whole bunch of the undergrads did a poster session, one of them did an oral presentation, and two of the grads (including me) did oral presentations. It was a little nerve-wracking, since we had to talk for 20 minutes... but I was talking about Catalan in education and I could talk forever about that, so it was a great experience. And hey - I got 2nd place! There are no photos of me presenting (somewhere the is a photo of me post-presentation floating around, but I don't know where), but I did snag this one off Facebook of the undergrad crew who represented us! 
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  Don't they look smart?!

• Speaking of presentations, we all presented in History of the English language. I chose to talk about English in Ireland, in honor of my Irish heritage. Let me tell you, Irish history is COMPLEX. But very interesting, and I learned a lot! If anyone wants to send me to Ireland to do some more research, I'm totally amenable to that idea....
• We had a fabulous AL Talk from Ted Rodgers, a big name in the TESOL world who actually works here in Hawaii at UH. He is friends with some of our professors, so they got him to come and chat with us. He is hilarious. I wish I could learn English from him! He gave us so many fun activities to use, like songs and chants and other silly things that make English fun. (Isn't English always fun?!)
• I finished my student teaching!! As I've said before, I was lucky enough to do my student teaching in two classes this semester, SPAN 1100 and WRI 1100. I spent the majority of the semester with the writing class, and they were awesome. I was really, really fortunate to have a SUPER cool mentor teaching in Barbara Hannum, who gave me free rein to try out all kinds of teaching activities. Some were more successful than others, of course, but I learned from all of it. And I had a great group of students to be patient with me along the way! I'll miss them, I have to admit. I'm wishing them all luck on their exam on Friday!
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  My fantastic class :)

• We practiced our capstone presentations last Friday night. Being Capstone buddies is a real experience, I'm telling you. There is such a feeling of camaraderie in going through the final semester together. I have to cut one minute from my presentation. The Big Event is this Friday!
• And now here we are in the midst of finals week! I've turned in one take-home final, submitted my portfolio, and sent in all my student teaching materials. All that's left is my History of English final tomorrow night and the Capstone Event on Friday and then it's OVER.

Hard to believe my two years here is just a few days from ending. I am so, so grateful for the opportunities and experiences I've had here at HPU. I will miss my classmates and teachers so much! I'll post again after the Capstone Event. If you are in Hawaii and interested in attending, it's May 8 at 3:00 PM here on campus!  

Oh, and outside of school, I went to a BALL! My fiancé's battalion ball, to be exact. I felt like a princess in my fancy dress and it was so fun to hang out with our friends and get all dressed up and dance :) 

I think we clean up pretty well ;)

Well, that's it for now, folks! Off to study for my History of English exam... wish me luck!